Principal Report

Hello families and NLPS community members,

We are well into the second half of the long Term 2 and things are humming along nicely in all our classrooms and across the school in general.

School Community Events

I sat down with our fantastically enthusiastic NLPS Parents Club President, Jack Donnelly, a couple of weeks ago and we went through the plethora of planned activities for 2024 and beyond. Later this term there are two events they are coordinating - the inaugural end of term disco and a Saturday working bee. Further details about these can be found in the latter part of this newsletter. As well as being a way for all our community members to connect, Parents Club events also help raise funds for programs that are important to our school, including the Foundation-Year 2 Fresh Fruit Mondays and our emergency lunches.

To ensure that these types of events are continued to be able to be offered at our wonderful school, I’d urge you to get involved in any way you can - join the Parents Club, offer to volunteer - either for a one off or a regular shift, or provide your organisational or marketing expertise and be a part of the 2025 Fete. You can do a little or a lot - everything is very much appreciated. Thank you to the Parents Club for their time and tireless efforts.  Contact Parents Club at -  nlpsparentsclub@gmail.com 

New Gate to Reduce Risk

Following on from parent concerns re: the risk of strangers in the yard during class times, we will soon be placing a new gate across the front of the school, just south of the main entrance. This will be unlocked when before school yard duty starts at 8:45, again for recess and lunch play breaks, and then for the end of day pick up time.

Note that this will also impact how students get into the main school yard prior to 8:45. If you are supervising your child/ren, then please pass through the office instead. For those students that are here early but without parents, they will need to remain in the office area. If you have to drop your child off earlier than 8:45, please be reminded that Quantin Binnah provides a wonderful before school care service that you can utilise - please click here for details.

Increasing Rubbish in the Yard

If you are lucky enough to attend assembly on a Friday afternoon, you may have heard me remind the students to demonstrate the school value of responsibility when dealing with the rubbish that results from their play break meals. In last Friday’s virtual assembly, I even put together a quick powerpoint on the impacts of plastics on the natural environment, life cycles and human health! The amount of rubbish in the yard this year has been extremely disappointing to see and I am sad that many of our students spend some of their play breaks electing to pick up rubbish in order for our school to look like a place to be proud of and to reduce the impacts of rubbish on the greater environment. Sure, they get a ‘Gotcha Card’ and well deserved recognition for their help, but I feel that they would be much better spending the time playing for the full break! 

Pleasingly, we began ‘Nude Food Wednesdays’ last week and I would love to see even more days going forward. Please help your child to reduce their impact by reducing the amount of plastic/single use packaging in their lunch boxes whenever possible.

Unfortunately, lunch orders seem to be another big contributor and I do not want to get to a point where we take either of these days away so reminding your child to be responsible for all their rubbish, and practising putting it in the bin at school and at home, would be of great help. Thank you for your support.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews will be conducted for all grade levels on Tuesday 25th June from 2:00 - 7.00pm.  The interviews will be conducted via WebEx or face-to-face. To further the school’s work on student agency, the Year 5/ 6 classes will be conducting ‘3 way’ (parent-teacher-student) conferences where the student will lead the session. Further details on how to book an interview time for your child/ren will be posted to all parents via Compass in the very near future.

2023 Annual Report

It is a legislative requirement that all Victorian government schools prepare an Annual Report by 30 April each year, and that this includes school specific information on student outcomes, attendance and financial activities.

The Annual Report must be endorsed at a meeting of the school council and attested to by the principal and school council president. This was done in late Term 1, 2024.

The 2023 NLPS Annual Report has passed departmental quality assurance and is now available for the school community to read through via the school’s website - please click here to view the report.

2025 Foundation Enrolments

We would like to remind families that enrolment for Foundation 2025 is required by Friday 26th July 2024. 

If you have a sibling of a student that attends here already, or know of families within our zoned community that have a child due to start school next year please remind them to get their enrolments in so we can plan for 2025 with confidence.  

Enrolment forms are attached below or are available from Compass, the front office or on the school website - here.

Upcoming Long Weekend

Parents are reminded that there is no school or childcare on Monday 10th June. I hope all families have the opportunity of having a small break and some relaxing time together over the upcoming long weekend.

Thank you

Thank you for your support in reminding your children to walk their bike or scooter through the yard, both before and after school. It’s been very pleasing to see all our students be safe and responsible with their wheeled forms of transport in recent weeks.

Have a lovely long weekend!

Carly Bannon

Principal

Building Fund & Library Fund Donations  - Tax Deductible Donations

Thank you to the families who have already made contributions to these funds. Your support is greatly appreciated.

With the end of the financial year approaching, we would like to remind the community that any donations made to these funds are tax deductible. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact the office.